Organic Pest Control Methods

Grandmother didn't have fancy sprays to protect her fruit.

She had to use natural means around her. One that helps scare away the birds well is simple reflective tape.

This moves with the slightest breeze and flashes and gleams, startling birds and making them uncomfortable in taking the juicy hanging fruit.

The scare crow that we chuckle at now was another means to keep the birds away. The only problem is that birds have all day to sit and watch that human dumby not move. At some point they start to question if anyone is dumb enough to stand there all day so they do a fly by. Nothing happens, they land close to the garden, nothing happens. Now they know, this can't be real, and the jig is up.

So Grandma got smarter and put the scarecrow on a pole that the wind would make it move. This helps a lot and will keep all but the smartest bird away.

One of the few scientific ideas that does work without harming our health is the Coddling Moth Trap. This helps protect our fruit from apple maggots or worms in our apples. The Trap is much like a mouse sticky trap on cardboard. The sticky part has a pheromone that attracts the female moth before she lands on your apple and plants an egg. She gets stuck on that trap and can't move. Simple and effective.

The last thing Grandmother did was simply cut the worm out of her apple. She accepted the fact that other critters needed to live to and sharing a bit of fruit wasn't the end of the world.